IRS Says Cheapest Plan Under ObamaCare Will Cost $20,000 Per Family

(CNSNews.com)– In a final regulation issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assumed that under Obamacare the cheapest health insurance plan available in 2016 for a family will cost $20,000 for the year.

Under Obamacare, Americans will be required to buy health insurance or pay a penalty to the IRS.

The IRS’s assumption that the cheapest plan for a family will cost $20,000 per year is found in examples the IRS gives to help people understand how to calculate the penalty they will need to pay the government if they do not buy a mandated health plan.

The examples point to families of four and families of five, both of which the IRS expects in its assumptions to pay a minimum of $20,000 per year for a bronze plan.

“The annual national average bronze plan premium for a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 children) is $20,000,” the regulation says.

Bronze will be the lowest tier health-insurance plan available under Obamacare–after Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Under the law, the penalty for not buying health insurance is supposed to be capped at either the annual average Bronze premium, 2.5 percent of taxable income, or $2,085.00 per family in 2016.

That’s funny… I thought it was called The Affordable Care Act. It’s almost like that name was deliberately chosen for purely Orwellian reasons rather than any basis in facts or the truth. Almost.

If you’re thinking that a family could buy a good solid family car for that kind of cash and do better, you’d be right. Let’s assume that a family of four has a wellness check for each adult once a year, and the kids have two. If a full-scale wellness check costs $500 — and it’s probably considerably less — that’s $3,000. If little Susie breaks her leg on a jungle gym at school, add in another $1000 for emergency room treatment and ongoing follow-up. Mom may get a mammogram for another $1000. That still brings us to $5000, or only a quarter of what they’re paying for coverage every single year under the new regulations.

Of course, one or more of them may end up in the hospital, at which point the coverage costs get a little more rational. However, I just had outpatient back surgery, which cost in total less than the plan costs assumed by the IRS as a minimum (~$13,000, most of it covered by insurance, including doctors, hospital, anesthesiologist, follow-ups). Besides, until the passage of ObamaCare, a family could choose to purchase hospitalization coverage (aka “catastrophic” insurance) rather than comprehensive, and choose to treat routine maintenance and non-hospitalization costs through pre-tax health-savings accounts (HSAs). Most families would save a fortune in doing so, and the elimination of third-party payers in the system would restore real price signals, which would actually bend the cost curve downward. Families might choose comprehensive insurance anyway to guard against catastrophic risk, but before ObamaCare, they at least had the opportunity to choose a wiser path.

Here’s The Won right after the SCOTUS cleared ObamaCare by calling it a tax.